10 No. 76 JUSTICE ntroduction Israel’s June 2025 military strike against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, known as Operation Rising Lion, achieved dramatic success. We analyze whether those strikes were justified under international law. While several commentators were quick to condemn the strikes as illegal,1 we contend that the strikes were fully justified for two independent reasons. First, the strikes constituted a lawful act of self-defense against Iran in response to the unlawful military invasion and ongoing rocket, drone, and missile attacks Iran and its proxies launched against Israel commencing on April 13, 2024. Second, the strikes constituted a lawful exercise of Israel’s inherent right to anticipatory self-defense against the imminent threat that Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs posed to Israel. First Justification: Self-Defense Against Ongoing War of Aggression Iran’s Complicity in the October 7, 2023, Hamas Invasion of Israel Iran’s strategy for years has been to surround Israel with a “ring of fire” in the form of heavily armed proxies ready and willing to do Iran’s bidding to bring about the destruction of the Jewish state. Iran armed, funded, and trained proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Iran has also smuggled weapons from Syria and Iraq to the West Bank via Jordan. Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, crossing the border by land, air, and sea, and fired thousands of rockets at civilian targets. Hamas murdered 1,200 people, took 251 hostages back to Gaza, and committed horrific acts of sexual violence, mutilation, and torture. On October 8, 2023, Hezbollah began firing hundreds of rockets and drones at civilian targets in northern Israel, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, towns, and villages. Iran bore responsibility for both the October 7 Hamas attack and the October 8 Hezbollah attack. The Wall Street Journal, citing senior Hamas and Hezbollah sources, reported that Iran had green-lighted the Hamas attack several days prior to October 7.2 Although the Biden Administration said it had not seen evidence directly implicating Iran in the Hamas attacks,3 neither Iran nor Hamas ever denied The Wall Street Journal report. Subsequent reporting bolstered The Wall Street Journal’s account. Documents discovered in 2024 revealed that Hamas had disclosed its October 2023 invasion plans to both Iran and Hezbollah several months before the attacks.4 If The Wall Street Journal overstated Iran’s involvement in the Hamas attacks, it could be argued that Iran would not be legally responsible for the attacks. Even though Iran had provided financial support, arms, and training to Hamas, Iran’s defenders would argue that Iran had not been directly involved in or exercised “effective control” over the planning or implementation of the October 7 invasion. The Legality of Operation “Rising Lion” Steven E. Zipperstein and Andrew Tucker 1. Adil Ahmed Haque, “Indefensible: Israel’s Unlawful Attack on Iran,” JUST SECURITY, June 19, 2025, available at https://www.justsecurity.org/115010/israel-unlawfulattack-iran-charter/; Marko Milanovic, “The Illegal Israeli-American Use of Force Against Iran: A FollowUp,” EJIL: TALK! June 23, 2025, available at https:// www.ejiltalk.org/the-illegal-israeli-american-use-offorce-against-iran-a-follow-up/ 2. Summer Said, Benoit Faucon, and Stephen Kalin, “Iran Helped Plot Attack on Israel Over Several Weeks: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gave the final goahead last Monday in Beirut,” The WALL STREET JOURNAL, Oct. 8, 2023, available at https://www.wsj. com/world/middle-east/iran-israel-hamas-strike-planningbbe07b25 3. Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed, “We don’t have anything that shows us that Iran was directly involved in this attack, in planning it or in carrying it out.” See “Meet the Press” (NBC television broadcast Oct. 8, 2023), transcript available at https://www. nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-october-82023-n1307318 4. Ronen Bergman, Adam Rasgon, and Patrick Kingsley, “Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack,” NEW YORK TIMES, Oct. 12, 2024, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/12/ world/middleeast/hamas-israel-war.html I
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